I ordered the new EX controller and clearpath servos. I am very excited. If I read correctly, I will be able to add an ATC to this new control box without any modification. Is this correct?
This is interesting. I have a clearpath servo EX controller on the way. If I wanted to have a stepper controlled dust boot, with the servo kit could I use a DB25 connector to connect a gecko drive to run that small stepper? Or, say, use that DB25 connector to run a home-made rotary axis with a nema 23?
In theory you could do that, but you’d need to install a stepper driver and power it, and also cut up the DB25 that is in there… That would most likely void the warranty.
If you did want to run an extra servo motor there’s another motor port already, and a separate power port for the A axis, you could use that…
Or maybe take a step back and think about some other ways to operate a dust boot, like a pnuematic cylinder?
That was an idea I was kicking around, but I am so very new to pneumatics. I was trying to design a deployable system, where I could use the work-zero-height in CNC12 to determine dust boot height (ala Marius Hornberger’s design)
I was thinking about a 5 way 3 position solenoid to set a variable height. That way I could have set heights for certain tools and tool changes with an ATC.
I’d try and do the simplest thing possible… Maybe you don’t even need to move the dust shoe at all? There are some systems that do vertical exchange of the tools.
If you do need to remove it you could rig up a sensor that checks to see if the dust shoe is installed, if it is it could wait for you to remove it, and then when the tool change is over wait for you to re-install it.
There are some other systems out there that dock the dust shoe to the side of the machine. You could check those out too.
Indeed. depending on how you setup the macro, and setup your tool holders, there is no horizontal movement required. If your toolholders simply sit on the … toolholder-holders then there’s no need to actuate the dustboot.
I feel obligated, given the discussion on dust collection to point out that by far the easiest and most reliable solution is simply to get a much more powerful dust collector. You can throw a ton of engineering trying to get away with optimized dust boots and other stuff in order to catch as much dust as possible, but, honestly, just a big high-vacuum dust collector will solve 90% of problem with a big, roomy, out of the way dust shoe and no automation.
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